Chaos Sorcerer

"I understand more than you could possibly know."

The right hand men of Chaos Lords, the Chaos Sorcerers are former Librarians of the Traitor Legions from before the Horus Heresy. Now, they work against their former brothers with the unearthly talents of a psyker and the aid of the Daemons of the Warp. Should any "accident" happen to the Chaos Lord, the Chaos Sorcerer will assume command of whatever is available in his war band, including countless Chaos Space Marine Squads, Cultists, Daemonic war machines and Daemons conjured from the warp.

Wielding formidable psychic powers and able to conjure up foul spells with forbidden words of power, the Chaos Sorcerers are more than a match for other Commanders despite their less than sturdy constitution. Able to travel between time and space by moving in and out of the Warp, they can appear anywhere and wreak havoc. Chaos Sorcerers are also in charge of leading Cultists in foul Chaotic ceremonies where Daemons are summoned and sacrifices are offered in the form of blood and their enemies' souls.

Sorcerers are constantly in search of knowledge, rumbling through forbidden vaults and long crumbled tomes. They seek to gain some of the greatest spells and the best ways to please their master, often in the hope of getting more "gifts" in the form of better Daemonic items and powers. If he has sufficiently pleased his dark masters he would be given the "honour" (or curse) of bearing the form of a Greater Daemon.

Tactics

The Chaos sorcerer is Chaos' primary spellcaster. He is first available at the start of Tier 2. He has powerful melee abilities, but with rather low health for a commander it is slightly risky to send him out into the middle of a battle. This can be solved by attaching him to a squad. Typically, in Tier 2 it is more advantageous to utilize the Chaos Sorcerer than the Chaos Lord as this stage often brings with it powerful ranged units, minimizing the Chaos Lord's ability to fight well in close combat as opposed to the Chaos Sorcerer having three ranged spells as well as the ability to teleport into melee or away from a bad situation.

When built, he initially has the Doombolt spell which does good damage to infantry units as well as diminishing morale. He can be upgraded with the Chains of Torment spell at the Sacrificial Circle, which does less damage than the Doombolt but binds a squad in place so it cannot move. In Tier 3, he can learn the Corruption spell which hurts units standing in the marked area severely. When all three spells are used at once, they can bring even powerful squads such as Assault Terminators to their knees.

The Chaos Sorcerer can also be possessed by the Bloodthirster. It may seem to be a bad idea to use him as a mere sacrifice but in terms of cost and benefits this is not always so. The Chaos Sorcerer's most powerful abilities have slow recharge times (especially the Corruption spell). In fact, all of his abilities recharge slower than he can be built. In Tier 3, where Requisition and Power often are plentiful, it is sometimes beneficial to use his abilities all at once to cripple or destroy several squads, teleport him to a suitable location (i.e. the center of the enemy army), and then summon the Bloodthirster at that spot. Then the player can rebuild him for his relatively low price with all of his spells fully charged. The only difficulty may be in shuttling him back to the battle, but then that is the role of the Chaos Rhino transport. Since he is not the only unit that may need to be carried to battle, the sacrifice may pay off well.

Abilities

Gives the Sorcerer the ability to quickly teleport through any intervening terrain to another location. At full charge the Chaos Sorcerer can make one teleportation and must then wait for it to completely recharge.

Doombolt

Doombolt

Hotkey: D

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

Any enemy ground units and buildings

Range

35

Area of effect

Variable, see below

Cooldown time

120 s

Effects

The Chaos Sorcerer fires off a total of 6 bolts at the enemy, each has an Offset Factor of 5 from the target and an Area of Effect of 10.

Summon Bloodthirster

When activated the unit is killed in an explosion of blood and the Bloodthirster is summoned. The explosion deals 5 damage and 40 morale damage in a radius of 15 to all units, dealing strong knockback (35-55 force).